


Into the Present

by I_Write_Midnight_Snacks



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Post-War, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Bullying (sort of), Disturbing Themes, F/F, F/M, Highschool Drama, Jean being a jerk, Jean is sort of a bully?, M/M, Modern Era, Multi, Post-Canon, Psychology, Reincarnation, Strong Language, Trauma, War Trauma, War descriptions, self-conscious Marco
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-16
Updated: 2015-03-16
Packaged: 2018-03-18 04:24:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3555905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_Write_Midnight_Snacks/pseuds/I_Write_Midnight_Snacks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's been centuries since the war against the titans was won and the world slowly started rebuilding itself. Now, when things are finally in order again, a certain group of 12 teenagers cross paths on the halls of their high school.<br/>Jean himself never really got along with others, but somehow he can't seem to stay away. Marco never got along the jerk, but for some reason they keep crossing paths.<br/>For some reason, they all feel as if something's horribly wrong in the whole situation,  and it somehow seems related to the world-history class they all share. </p><p>!Post-canon reincarnation au; Jeanmarco!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Into the Present

**Author's Note:**

> This basically happens a few centuries years after the events of the show, with the main cast all reincarnated and in highschool together. I'm gonna try to get pretty deep into their minds in this, mostly in Marco and Jean's, so I'm not sure but I might touch some really strong subjects sometime later in the fic. Starts out as a Jean-is-a-jerk-kinda-bully-to-Marco and just kinda follows their development from there, and I also wanna try and develop on a type of Jean I rarely see in fandom; the one we caught glimpses of in the show and manga, who knows he's a jerk and who actually hates himself and is self-doubting despite his attitude; so dunno, I guess, give it a chance please ^^; and I hope y'all like it 
> 
> PS there might be some spelling mistakes, so if you see any please let me know!

The laugh resounded in Marco’s ears from all the way down the hall, causing the freckled boy to sigh. Taking that as his cue to leave, he shoved the last of his notebooks into his backpack, shutting his locker and turning around to walk away. Thankfully he had been far enough away to successfully avoid meeting the insufferable jock called Jean Kirschtein.

By the sound of it,  some other poor bastard had had the missfortune of an encounter with the jock,  but as much as Marco hated to admit it,  it was better someone else than him.  With a sigh,  he closed his eyes and just walked silently to class.  It wasn't the time to go around thinking about Jean, no mater how much of an ass he was; the jock was far from being the worst th heir school had to offer.  All Jean ever really did was mess around,  poke fun at people and be a jerk about it.  At least he never got phisical or extremely serious about it. It was still hurtful,  and it still made Marco feel like crap, but it was far from being as bad as, Marco knew,  Jean could really be if he wanted to.

It didn't take Marco long to get to his class. AP mathematics. Now,  bear in mind, Marco wasn't anything special. He wasn't a genious like his friend Armin, or someone really athletic like the boxing club’s star Mikasa, or Jean and Eren the star football players, he really wasn't particularly outstanding in any field, but if he could be proud with something it was the fact that he had worked damn hard to get where he was.  It wasn't easy to gain his place in his generation's top ten, not in a school like West Rose high, and the male was determined to keep his rank until the end of the year when he would graduate.

Right on cue, the previouly mentionded genious boy turned up next to Marco with a greeting and a large smile,  to which the freckled boy responded just as happily.  The two would always sit together in the classes they shared,  which was most of them,  just making small talk during the minutes before the period started, and oftentimes you could find them studying together during free periods.  Really,  Armin was one of his best friends although Marco was pretty sure the same wasn't true for Armin.  The blonde was a sweet boy,  and they undoubtedly enjoyed spending time together, but Marco had met Armin later than any of the boy’s best friends. Their bond couldn't compare, and Marco was fine with that. Really he was content with the way things were. 

That was just what they were doing at the time.  Talking about whatever came to their minds. And that was when Jean Kischtein walked in, a yawn on his lips like he hadn’t slept all night. He was mentioned earlier I'm sure you remember. The jerk? Yeah, that was him. One of the school jocks, sharing AP maths,  AP phisics as well as PE and world history with Marco, and as it happened to be,  one of the boy's main contestants for the top ten. And Marco was praying that  oh god please don’t come here maybe he won’t see me just please look the other way! And, of course, luck wasn’t on his side, because not one second later -and really what the fuck was with this timing I mean come on this wasn’t some movie or shit- the jock’s golden eyes locked right onto the pair of friends.

Marco could hear Armin already sighing next to him - and really he couldn’t hold back a smirk because there was no way they were the only ones who knew how insufferable the male was-. Of course the corners of his lips quickly turned downwards when he noticed the horse-faced teenager make his way over wearing that shit-eating grin that Marco just wanted to punch off of his face, and that was saying something because really, Marco wasn’t normally a violent person.

_Well, I say all that but Jean’s actually pretty attractive. He may have a long face but like, his traits are really well defined and I mean, hey, it all just fits together on him, even that damn grin of his._ Thankfully Marco stops himself before he can go any further than that, and decides instead to cut off the jock before he can say whatever he opened his mouth to say.

“What do you want, Kirschtein?” it didn’t come out quite as coldly as Marco had wanted it to and fuck now Jean’s smirk was even wider.

“Hey, why the cold shower?” the teen asked in mock-offense as he sat down backwards on the chair across from the freckled boy. Was that a book Armin was holding? The little traitor was fucking ditching him to deal with Kirschtein on his own and shit the damn horse-face was speaking. Nothing good ever followed that, and  _damn you Armin I thought you were my friend how could you?_ “And here I wanted to make peace. What do you say, Bodt?” one of those dark eyebrows of his rose in inquiry- there was no way that hair of his was natural no matter how the guy denied that he bleached it, the eyebrows gave it away for sure, righ? and the male offered Marco his hand to shake.

To his complete amusement, the boy looked just as confused as Jean had expected him to.

“Jean, just… what do you want?” the tone was matched by the motion of rubbing his hand over his face, just wanting to get this over with already. As soon as that left his mouth, Jean’s laughter filled his ears -yeah, the same annoying laughter mentioned at the begining, in case you were wondering. Armin’s eyes kept moving rapidly between the pages of his book and the exchange taking place just next to him as Jean retracted his hand, whiping away an immagined tear, and suddenly not seeming quite as tired anymore despite the bags under his eyes.

“Should have known you smartass wouldn’t fall for it. Look, nerd, I just don’t want any trouble, got it? Coach asked me to call you the field today after school, so you better show up, or it falls on my shoulders. Seems like you need an extra sports credit if you want to make the top, and you need to join a club. Think you can handle that?” It wasn’t as if Jean believed half the shit that seemed to spill out of his mouth, but whatever he said always seemed to get a small fit out of the usually cheerful boy, which was quite pleasing for the jock, whenever he managed to get those furrowed eyebrown, that small twitch of his nose… It was pretty freaking hilarious. “‘Sides, I never got to ask.” he leered, leaning into the boy’s personal space. There it was, suddenly, the anger was replaced by wide eyes and pink cheeks. This time he was flustered, not angry, and the expression was just as fascinating for the bottle-blonde.

The male never really contemplated on why he enjoyed getting all these different reactions out of the other, studying every little trait of his, every quirk with any chance he got. Jean never wondered. He just enjoyed tasing Marco while he did, and then ignored the nagging at the back of his head whenever he would turn around.

“What has you so determined to get into the top ten, anyway? Surely you’ve got some reason. You want to get into the Central Sinna accademy, right? Of course, everyone ‘cept Jaeger wants that, I mean what idiot would pass away the chance at a full-expenses pain scholarship in the best uiversity in all of europe, right?”

“Why would you even bother asking me if you were going to answer it by yourself anyway?” Marco pouted, finally able to interject. He was pouting this time. That was pretty new. Jean hadn’t seen that particular expression a lot, so he made sure to memorise as much as he could, from the way his right cheek stuck out a little more than his left, to the way his eyebrows quirked and that tinge in his eyes that showed Jean he was really bothered and  _oh god I swear I’m not a creep really he just has a weird face and it’s funny alright?!_

“Anyway, if you’re quite done, I’d appreciate it if you would let me finish the discussion Id been having with my  _friend_ ”, Armin, previously unnoticed, flinched at that, catching the murderous undertone in that one word, “before class starts.” Needless to say that Armin was in for a hell of a berating as soon as class ended. 

* * *

 

“..an...Jean...Jean! Wake up... “

 

The teen flinched awake, his eyes snapping open in a flash as confusion swarmed through them. For a full five seconds, he had absolutely no idea where the hell he was, before it all came back to him; of course, that was probably because his neack hurt like hell, shocking him enough to realise that he had been stupid enough to fall asleep on a damn library table during ree study period.

 

“Berthold? Ugh, what…” he groahed, craning his neck. “What time is it?” he asked the male who had apparently been the one to wake him up. Jean didn’t ofen get to hang around Berthold without Reiner being there too. It was usually rare for the two to be apart really, but that didn’t really seem out of the ordinary for anyone. Whenever the two boys did happen to have periods apart from each other, they’d spend them with their other friends, only to meet up again at break.

 

“Uh, oh… it’s… almost the end of the period.” the tall male mumbled, seeming as if he wanted to say something more, but he didn’t so instead he just kept glancing over at Jean then back to the deask and how the hell was someone as fucking colossus as him that fucking shy?

 

Whatever. Jean just shrugged it off, deciding to bother with other problems, like that history test coming up soon that he… had been studying for before he had fallen asleep and looking down at the book still open on the desk it looked as if there were several moist spots, like where the hell had those come from he had just… oh.

 

Lifting a hand to his fce to rub at his eye, the male came to the concusion that, yes, indeed there were tears on his face.  _Holy shit I just cried in my fucking sleep, what the hell man?_

What the hell kinda dream could he have to end up crying, in. his. sleep?!

 

“Are-are you ok? What did you dream?” Berthold managed to ask the male once he caught on to the fact that Jean had realised what had happened.

 

“I’ve no fucking idea, man. Just… just don’t tell anyone about this, got it?” his tone was casual, actually non threatening as he said that, knowing that there was no reason he couldn’t trust the tall teen. Looking back down at the pages of the history enciclopedia he had fallen asleep on, Jean frowned. The page he was on was actually spaking about the revolution that had taken place several centuries prior. Despite that it was, up to this day, considered the most important event in the history of all humanity. It was the main subject of their whole highschool practice, even though the events of the revolution itself were still partly unknown thanks to the loss of most written records at the time of the fight. The events proceeding and following the main battlethough formed most of what they needed to learn, so Jean was pretty confident that he had a good grasp of it.

 

He was vaguely aware of his friend giving him some sort of confirmation next to him, but by that time he was already drawn back towards the lesson, and he couldn’t really be bothered with it. For some reason, that particular subject seemed to stir something inside Jean. Whenever he would sit in history class and hear about those events, something got his interest, as if he was drawn to the subject itself.

 

_By that point,_ Jean read,  _the main line of defense for humanity consisted of a single military squad, formed out of the best ranking officers in the whole military, followed by a group of six soldiers fresh out of training._ Of couse, he knew all of that by heart. It was one of his favourite parts. For people in his genration, everything in that book may have seemed like some weird fantasy but humanity knew. Human kind would never really forget such an event in their past, as well as the reason for the world existing as it was. Those people had sacrificed everything to free humanity, and Jean wasn’t sure if he admired them.

 

He knew that in their place, he couldn’t have done all that. He couldn’t have done that in their stead. Fact was they had freed humanity, but really, who the hell would willingly sacrifice themselves when there was an easy way out for them, and no real certainty they would succeed? How could they know that it would really matter? Jean knew that he would have chickened out, because there was no way anything he would’ve done would’ve mattered anyway, so why even struggle? It’s better if you just take the easy way out and save yourself the trouble from the start. No use throwing youself into danger like some suicidal bastard when you’re bound to lose anyway. The only one who would really do that was Jaeger, probably.

* * *

Marco's eyes darted around as he walked into the gym, wondering whether he was early, since the coach didn't seem to be there yet. He never really considered joining a sports club,  but it could turn out to be a good thing for him and besides there were at least fifteen other candidates for the top ten other than him and he could use any extra credit he could get. 

 

 

"Sports,  huh... " he sighed, wondering what he should pick. Football and Boxing were deffinitely out of the question; several other candidates were already stars in those particular feilds and besides, he did want to get out in one piece. Cross running maybe? 

 

"Can't decide, eh Bodt?" the voice startled the boy out of his thoughts and he spun around quickly to face the man.

 

"Oh, uh, hello coach... " Marco greeted awkwardly, ashamed that he had been so deep in his thoughts that he hadn't even heard the man approach. 

 

Coach Jones, however, just laughed, patting Marco on the back.  "Hey, relax, kid. I ain't gonna feed you to titans." a sheepish laugh was the only response he got before continuing. "So anyway, I guess Jean already told you what's up.  It's important for you to choose something you'll do good on so I'm not going to rush you, but you do need to join in the next two weeks or you won't have time to gather full credit, I'm sure you understand. "

 

"I understand coach. I'll...  Get back to you about it soon." or so he said but, in all reality, he wasn't sure what to do.

 

"Alright. " the older man smiled,  placing a reassuring hand on Marco's shoulder." And i'm sorry that this is out of the blue but the boss just did the maths and realised that there's more competition than expected this year. It's gonna be a tight fight for the top ten spots and you all need all the extra credit you can get."

 

"Alright. Thanks coach. I'll hand in my application as soon as possible. " he smiled, finally being dismissed. 

* * *

_Wind._

 

_"All units, charge!"_

_Those words were the only thing he could hear over the sound of the wind passing him._

_He was moving fast. Too fast._

_Wind._

_His skin felt cold, beaten by the air moving rapidly past him,  but on the contrary it felt as if his insides were burning with pumped adrenaline as well as, he realised, fear._

_Things were moving fast. Too fast. He couldn't make out what was going on._

_But, he was moving. Everything was a blur of sounds, and motion, and colors and suddenly it wasn't. "Jean... Thanks, man." there was no face accompanying those words because before he knew it he wasn't there any more. Before he could grasp onto that painfully familiar voice, everything morphed around him and now he wasn’t there anymore but he still didn’t know who that had been._

_He was alone now, and it was dark but he coul still feel it._

_Messing up his hair and raising goosebumps on his skin... Wind._

_It moved together with him, yet against him, seeming to push the male around without managing to decide on a direction, trying to get him somewhere, yet not knowing where._

_"Hold your positions!" the words stood out over the general chaos._

_There was blood._

_And wind._

_And he was moving fast._

_Too fast._

_There were people around; at least, he thought there were. But yet he felt as if he was the only person there, alone because he could barely make them out, could barely concentrate on the immage of the people and their shilouettes despite the fact that they were right there and it should have been clear._

_It was loud yet he couldn't make any sounds out, but there was blood and people were yelling, things were  moving and_ _**he**_ _was moving, until suddenly he wasn't, because he was_ **in his bed** , and he wa gasping and panting and there was no blood and no wind and no weird voices that he felt he should know yet he couldn’t recognise, there were just sheets tangled around his body and his own skin covered in sweat and he was home. Safe.

 

Even so, the male’s heart was still beating too hard for him to be able to breathe properly, and he wasn’t sure why. What had happened? He didn’t know. Confusion swarmed Jean’s eyes as he kept staring blankly at the wall across from him, trying to get his breathing under control.

 

It took him several seconds to get himself together and lay back down, but as he did, and as he laid there motionlessly for several minutes, staring at the ceiling, and even as he slowly started drifting back to sleep, the male couldn’t shake off the feeling that there was something important that he couldn’t seem to remember.

* * *

 

The next morning as he was getting ready for school, Jean’s mind kept drifting off to that night. And the night before. And pretty much every night before that for the last several weeks. He always seemed to wake up suddenly during the night, every single time getting the feeling that he had dreamt something important, that there was something he had to remember, yet no matter how much he would think about it the following morning, he couldn’t remember even a glimpse of whatever had occured during those dreams.

 

Needless to say, the teen had quickly began feeling more tired during the day, which was a problem because he couldn’t afford that with all the important matches coming up for their football team.

 

Groaning, he decided to take a shower. Every day the same thing. Wake up, think about those damn dreams, come to zero co nclusions  , take a shower, realise he had to hurry to school, come home, do homework, sleep, wake up in the middle of the night.

Rinse and repeat. 

It was giving him a headache, because this was stupid. Really there was no rational reason why he should be so bothered. On the contrary, if he would stop thinking about it, the whole thing would probably stop.

But then, why couldn’t he? Even if he tried, most of the day, he had nothing better to think about; whenever his mind would start wondering, it would always find it’s way back to the same topic.

 

One cold shower later - because really, a warm shower was all he needed to help him feel even more tired - and the jock was finally getting dressed to leave for school. The history test he had been studying for was today, and he felt ready. Of course everyone in his class was good at that subject. Somehow it seemed as if third period World History was the only class that every single Top Ten candidate shared, meaning that he had that class with the best of the best, so he could never be too sure of himself.

 

He had to do his best here, too, since this test would account for half of his final grade cumulated with the results he would have in the class trip they would have two weeks later. A trip he was particularly looking forward to.

 

Stepping out of his room, Jean made his way silently to the entrance so as to not wake his mother. On his buss to school, the boy had his earbuds plucked in blasting his head with music as he tried to tune out the sounds of other students and just concentrate on the test that day. It didn’t take long until he was there and like every other day - now you see what he meant about the routine? - he met his friends next to his locker.

 

Note that the word ‘friends’ was used lightly. They happened to share a lot of classes and had somehow developed the routine of spending their days together. They were more than aquaintances, but Jean still felt like it was a stretch to call them friends. He doubted either one of them actually viewed him as someone that close to them. He knew that he wasn’t the easiest person to get along with and though they put up with him. The bonds there definitely weren’t that strong.

 

Either way, they all met up that morning too, talking about what was coming up; namely the test and the trip. Even though that subject seemed to come up a bit too often lately, it kept Jean from trailing back to thinking about his dreams, so hey, who was he to say anything against it?

 

“I want to see everything we can! That whole story was epic!” was the line that managed to earn Connie a slap over the head from none other than the lovely Ymir.

 

“You idiot. It’s not a bedtime story or some shit, you realise. You should take it more seriously.”

 

“Hey! You didn’t have to do that!” the midget retaliated. “Besides, I know that but come on! Even if it did happen, it’s hard to imagine that it was real! I mean, the whole thing sounded unbelievable!”

 

“Oi, you two. Cut it out before you get the whole school’s attention.” a different person interrupted the dispute -Annie, the lone-wold of the little group- before it could really escalate, and thank god for that. The whole group was made up of ridiculously weird people and Jean wouldn’t put it past them to get in jail for some bar fight or other shit sometime soon. He had learned not to underestimate their ability to cause trouble wherever they went.

 

“Annie’s right, guys. Maybe you don’t care if you get in trouble, but I for one would like to keep my record clean till the end of the year so if you’re gonna fight, do it without us around.” he sighed towards Connie and Ymir, seeing as both hard-heads were about to protest to Annie’s words. Ymir was obviously going to retaliate when Berthold stepped in.

 

“C-come on, guys…don’t fight. We-we should head to class anyway, right?” the teenattempted to play the peace-maker despite his obvious stutter, but the message got across, and Ymir tch’d, turning away from the others. “Fine. Let’s go then.”

  
As the others somehow began walking towards their own classes, Jean heaved a sigh, wondering just why he kept hanging around them. Perhaps because they were the only ones willing to put up with his own shit attitude.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Well, that's the first chapter; pretty much just touching up on some of the characters and relationships, but more on that later.  
> My awesome Beta for this was Yumelory, a good friend of mine and pretty much the only person I know IRL who gets my god-awful sense of humour; I'm pretty sure (actually I know) I would've totally messed up since I'm still kinda a newb with the characters in SnK, lack of experience considered and all. So thanks dude, and sorry but you'll kinda have to put up with this for a while since I'm not letting you off yet *laughs*


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